The Supreme Court has extended its ban on clinical trial of 162 new drugs till Dec. 16, 2013. Credit: epSos.de/ CC BY 2.0
KOLKATA, Nov 5 2013 (IPS) – More than 2,500 Indians have died in the course of clinical trials in recent years, government figures reveal.
According to an affidavit filed by the health ministry in the Supreme Court in response to a petition by health NGOs, there were 80 deaths due to clinical trials between January 2005 and June 2012. Between July 2012-August 2013 nine more such reported deaths occurred, making this total 89, according to the petitioner Swasthya Adhikar Manch (SAM), a health rights forum. Compensation was paid in 82 cases.
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NAPLES, Dec 16 2013 (IPS) – The beauty of the Bay of Naples under a setting sun, the romance of Sorrento and the scenic splendour of the Amalfi coastline pull thousands of visitors to southern Italy. But the region is also home to an ugly truth.
The area between Caserta and Naples in the Campania region has come to be known as Italy’s ‘garbage bin’, thanks to the mafia.
The country produces nearly 100 million tonnes of garbage per year, with over a third of it reportedly cornered by the mafia.
The mafia initially began by charging industries from the north for disposing of their toxic wastes in landfills in Campania, especially the Resit landfill site in Giugliano. A neglected and under-regulated sector, waste disposal was an easy front for the mafia to ge…
A patient being treated at the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram in India. Traditional Ayurvedic treatment is being used increasingly to back regular cancer care. Credit: K.S. Harikrishnan/IPS.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Feb 24 2014 (IPS) – Balakrishnan, a labourer from Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala, was suffering from oral cancer. He was admitted to the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram. After the first course of radiation therapy, the 60-year-old could not eat or drink because of severe pain and infection in the mouth.
An Ayurvedic mouth wash developed from the Neem plant was administered to Balakrishnan for three week…
WASHINGTON, Jun 6 2014 (IPS) – International cooperation on key global challenges declined in 2013, according to a new “report card” released here Friday by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Particularly disappointing were international efforts in dealing with terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation and global finance, according to the report which, however, found some gains in two areas – dealing with or preventing armed conflict and improving global health.
The report also found that cooperation on climate change, which last year’s report card found to be worth the lowest grade – a “D” of all the major issues on which the report card focused, was neither better nor worse than the previous four years assessed by the 50-some experts who const…
A water kiosk in Blantyre, Malawi. Activists argue that water and sanitation must be a stand-alone goal in the post-2015 framework. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 15 2014 (IPS) – The United Nations is on the verge of releasing a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) perhaps 17 or more to replace the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which will run out by the end of 2015.
The proposed new SDGs, which will make amends for the shortcomings of the MDGs, will be an integral part of the U.N. s post-2015 development agenda which, among other things, seeks to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger from the face of the earth by 2030.”Why not have a t…
Relief workers and aid agencies are worried about the security, protection and psychological health of women and children in post-disaster settings. Credit: Naresh Newar/IPS
DABI, Nepal, Aug 27 2014 (IPS) – Living in a makeshift tarpaulin shelter, which barely protects her family from the torrential rainfall or scorching heat of this remote village in southern Nepal, 36-year-old Kamala Pari is under immense stress, worrying about her financial security and children’s safety.
The family’s only house and tiny plot of farmland were completely destroyed by the massive landslide on Jul. 2 that struck the village of Dabi, part of the Dhusun Village Develop…
Displaced Palestinians gather at a United Nations school in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Aug. 26, 2014. Families found refuge after fleeing their homes in an area under heavy aerial bombardment in the besieged Palestinian territory. Credit: UN Photo/Shareef Sarhan
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 13 2014 (IPS) – When the international pledging conference to rebuild a devastated Gaza ended in Cairo over the weekend the third such conference in less than six years the lingering question among donors was: is this the last of it or are there more assaults to come?
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon implicitly warned of the futility of the continuing exercise when he said: We c…
Survivors at a workshop in Pader, northern Uganda. Thousands of women were raped during Uganda’s civil war but there have been few government efforts to assist them. Credit: Rosebell Kagumire/IPS
WASHINGTON, Dec 10 2014 (IPS) – Nearly two dozen health, advocacy and faith groups are calling on President Barack Obama to take executive action clarifying that U.S. assistance can be used to fund abortion services for women and girls raped in the context of war and conflict.
The groups gathered Tuesday outside of the White House to draw attention to what they say is an ongoing misreading by politicians as well as humanitarian groups of four-decade-old legislation. That la…
This is the second of a two-part article analysing India’s plans to double coal production by the end of this decade. The article, by Chaitanya Kumar, South Asia Team Leader of 350.org, which is building a global climate movement through online campaigns, grassroots organising and mass public actions, offers four reasons why investors and the Indian government should be really wary of investing in coal for the long run. The first part, which was run on Mar. 18, dealt with the first two reasons; this second part looks at the final two.
Coal mining in India. Coal-fired plants contribute 60 percent of India’s energy capacity and are a large source of the air pollution t…
Whether they like it or not, many Africans faced with the possibility of having to access water through prepaid meters have resorted to unprotected and often unclean sources of water because they cannot afford to pay. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS
HARARE, May 8 2015 (IPS) – While many countries appear to have met the U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water, rights activists say that African countries which have taken to installing prepaid water meters have rendered a blow to many poor people, making it hard for them to access water.
“The goal to ensure that everyone has acces…